Hello all! It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. Nearly 3 years ago, I was diagnosed with Eagle Syndrome on my left side and was able to have surgery performed to remove part of the styloid bone plus calcified tendon. The surgery was done intra-orally (removal of the tonsil to get to the styloid) and did alleviate symptoms greatly.
So this past spring or so, I began to have some jaw pain on my right side that I at first thought was my TMD- TMJ disorder. But this pain did not let up and was much worse than I’d ever had from the TMD. I later started getting the same symptoms as I had on the left before my surgery- pressure in the neck below and around the ear, ear pain, sore throat and pain in the tonsil area but this time on the right side. It took awhile to get in to see my ENT, but I finally seen him on November 7th. He agrees that this is most likely Eagles on the right side, and after confirming it with a neck CT scan, which I have tomorrow, he will perform the surgery on December 8th. I’m ready as I know it will help with the pain, but I also know as it gets closer the nervousness will set in.
Those that have had the surgery, and I believe I asked this before my last surgery but maybe I can get some new ideas this time, what soft foods and liquids were you able to consume in the first couple weeks after the surgery? Last time I quickly got tired of Jello and puddings.
Sorry that you’ve got to go through it again on the other side! I don’t know why, but I found the second side surgery alot easier than the first, I think maybe because it wasn’t quite as bad, so I hope that happens for you!
I had lots of smoothies- my favourite is juiced pineapple and spinach, then made into a smoothie with banana and yoghurt (you can’t taste the spinach at all, but get all the goodness!) I had lots of yoghurt, custard, and soft foods like cauliflower or macaroni cheese, with runnier sauces than usual. And of course icecream! My surgery was external though, so the throat wasn’t painful, it was more the opening my mouth and chewing which was painful.
Hope that your surgery goes well! 
I’m also sorry to hear you’re potentially on round 2 but both Jules & I have done this twice & are very happy we did as our lives are so very much better than before surgery!
So you may get grossed out by my suggestion, but it worked for me: My husband kindly would put whatever meal we were having (meat, veggies, etc) in the blender & add a bit of almond milk & water & blend it into a shake. I had trouble chewing because my hypoglossal nerve was temporarily damaged so this really helped me to feel like I was having a “normal” meal. I actually found that blending meat & veggies together wasn’t so bad. It doesn’t look appetizing but tasted just fine. When my brother was younger & had braces on his teeth, I recall our mom making him a shake from a BBQed hamburger w/ all the fixings. He loved it! That’s where I got the idea. If this sounds disgusting to you, you could put chicken noodle soup or beef stew or something like that in a blender just to get rid of the chunks. For other savory (instead of sweet) blender meals, butternut or other winter squashes are very soft when cooked. They’re easy to make into soup or you can buy it ready made. Then there’s tomato/vegetable soup which could be blended. You could add oyster crackers or crumbled saltines which get soft really fast, & save the yummy smoothie Jules suggested for breakfast or a snack. Eggs are also very soft when scrambled. You could buy the pasturized version in a carton & add them raw to a smoothie since they’re safe to use raw.
Here’s hoping these ideas are helpful!
Thanks ladies! I’ve already got a couple big tubs of ice cream- neopolitan and a chocolate, cinnamon applesauce, strawberry applesauce, some canned fruit I figured I could mash or blend, and planned on getting more soups. Scrambled eggs are a good idea, I’ll make sure I have plenty of eggs. I was also thinking maybe mashed potatoes with some sort of flavoring and mashed carrots. My jaw pain has been more of an issue to where it’s easier to already be eating soft/liquidy foods, I can only chew for so long before it bothers me. I’ll be good and ready to be all done.
Good for you for thinking & planning ahead! Glad we could provide helpful ideas!
Do you like porridge- do you have it in the US? That’s another good soft food to have, and you can mash any other fruit into it.
We call it “hot cereal” here…
and it comes in many varieties with the most popular being “oatmeal” (made from rolled oats, steel cut oats AKA Irish oats, or some combination), cream of wheat or cream of rice. With the whole grain craze in the U.S., hot cereal is often made w/ a variety of whole grains & served w/ milk or cream, brown sugar or some other sweetener, dried fruit (often raisins), nuts of some sort, butter, etc., with milk & sugar being the typical “go to” items in the list.